Predator Ridge Fire Hall coming soon

The long awaited Predator Ridge Fire Hall is coming together and is set to be built this year.

Monday at the Vernon City Council Meeting the land lease was officially signed, allowing the fire department to proceed with building a new fire hall for the Predator Ridge community.

“ We are quite happy to have worked with Predator Ridge for an extensive period of time to make sure the Predator Ridge community gets a fire station,” said Vernon Fire Department Fire Chief Keith Green.

“The lease agreement is one of the final things that we needed to prepare so we can move forward,” explained Green, noting that the next step is to award the $600,000 construction contract with a goal to break ground this spring.

“I think it is going to be a signature building for the community. For them to know there is a fire station there and that there is first responders ready to go, I think it will be comforting for people to know.”

The Vernon Fire Department already has staff that lives in that area who will be dedicating their time to the new station once built.

When there is a call from the area, there will be ‘paid on-call’ workers responding from the Predator Ridge station and Engine 1 will also still respond from downtown Vernon.

Chief Green feels that area is definitely in need of a local fire hall.

“You are seeing more and more of these bigger events in that area. We were up at the landfill six times last year I think, the Ellison Park fire and the rise fire the year before,” notes Green. “So these are things that certainly threaten the community and we are happy to move forward with this.”

Green says his team is hopeful the new fire hall will be built and ready to go by this fall.

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